(Closed) Beverages and Alcohol Suggestions at a Backyard Reception?? HELP!

We will be hosting our reception in our backyard at 1pm for approximately 160 guests. Food will be from Famous Daves BBQ (mmmmm). We plan on serving cans of soda, iced tea, and lemonade. We will also have fruit infused water as well as plain water.

What would you recommend serving for liquor? We plan to serve beer- would it best to serve bottles or a keg? A keg is probably easier/cheaper but is it too… (for lack of a better word) tacky? Is wine/champage expected or should we come up with some sort of fruity signature cocktail?

Also, should we assume our guests will drink less because it is a daytime event or will they drink about the same since it is an afternoon in the middle of summer at a wedding reception?

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can provide. With 2 months to go, these are the details that keep me up at night!

I think a self serve Sangria Bar is a really cute idea. If you don’t like sangria you could do a similar idea with a champagne punch and serve all the drinks in dispensers to have it look nice.

Also, I think you can never go wrong with just champagne or white wine if you want to keep it simple.

I don’t think a keg is tacky but it could be if you don’t use the right glass wear. What if you use mason jars as glasses for all of the drinks? I would probably just do bottles and put them in galvanized tubs because it is simpler and probably cheaper after you figure out the cost of glasses but that is a personal preference.

Sometimes, you can return cases (beer) not opened… at least in our neck of the woods — if they know it is for a wedding. But a keg wouldn’t be as expensive (& I don’t think tacky at all!).

At our engagement party we were surprised of how few drank wine (even some known wine drinkers)… I think that a sangria bar is an awesome idea — especially for an afternoon affair. Or perhaps another “signature drink” (guests at our party loved this less expensive option iced tea and vodka — that could be good for a summer wedding).

I gave a good look at my guest list and tried to estimate who I know won’t drink and who would…

One had a keg and frozen margaritas. They had rented a margarita machine and on a hot day, they were wonderful….but then, I love frozen fruity drinks.

I’ve also gone to a backyard wedding that just had big tubs of ice filled with cans of beer and wine coolers and things like Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

The third one had a big bowl sangria punch (not a sangria bar, which sounds more fun), a table with several bottles of vodka, rum, and whiskey which people could use to make their own drinks — or do shots I suppose, and a cooler full of beer.

Though all three had different options, all were fun and it seemed like at every wedding, guests were all able to find something they liked.

@sweetcream: Thanks, I bookmarked that page. Wine seemed weird to me but FI suggested just doing beer and wine. I occasionally drink wine but not often so I’d like to have something I enjoy there as well! I’ll look into whether or not we would be able to return unopened cases.

Kegs are not tacky if you have a server to do it for you. A keg sitting in a bucket in the backyard where everyone has to serve themselves yes is tacky. We had kegs and our bartenders poured them into pitchers as the night went on so it was totally classy. Keep in mind the cost of (rental) glasses and if you are able to wash the glasses during the event. We were not and thus had to order more than needed so when people lost their glass, just thought they needed another we’d have plenty available. Bottles are easier but sometimes more expensive and we wanted to have the option for recycling rather than all that being trash.

as far as the whole alcohol thing – it depends on if you’re having bartenders or not. Premade containers of drinks seem like you might not be. I think thats easiet but with 160 guests that might not be enough. If you hire bartenders from a catering company or what not I’d just ask for options that include a few choices in your price range and easy to make when its hot. Also you’ll need a riduclous amount of ice. We purchased ours through the caterer since it was easiest.

i just had my wedding saturday in the backyard and we had 7 bottles of barley drank wine …we should have just stayed with beer and we actually did serve sangria too! so i would just stick with that IMO